Nawaz Sharif was against Pakistan’s nuclear tests: Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed

[Prince Kassad]

Nawaz Sharif is not only corrupt but a traitor too. And for running away from facing justice, add coward to the list as well.

Will you say the same for Ik after his term?

 

[The Accountant]

I was following the Pakistani news very closely after the Indian atomic blasts. Reading whatever I could on the internet and listening to Pakistan TV Channel (later became ARY). If I recollect correctly, people in favor of conducting the Atomic tests were Mushahid Hussein Syed (Minister of Information & Broadcasting), Gohar Ayub (Foreign Minister), and Gen Jahangir Karamat (COAS), Dr. AQ Khan and Benazir Bhutto who was then leader of the opposition. Sartaj Aziz, special adviser on Foreign Affairs was against the tests whereas Nawaz Sharif, under pressure from Clinton, was dilly-dallying.

Sh. Rashid was Minister for Railways and may or may not have been among those who were for the tests. His name was not mentioned in the media as he had never been part of the inner circle of Nawaz Sharif.

IMHO, Sh Rashid is being rather presumptuous to imply that he was one of the main persons in the decision making, but then he is a ‘Wily’ politician. How else could he manage to become a Federal Minister under Nawaz Sharif, under Musharraf and now also in the PTI gov’t? I leave it to the readers to decide how credible he is.

Shiekh rasheed is close to military establoshment. He is not capable in terms of delivery but he has few personality traits.

1. He lives close to common people and is popular among his constituency. So its almost a guarantee that he will be in assembly.
2. He do not like to be dictated and follow his own priorities. He can follow his own terms as he has votes independent of political party.
3. He being closed to military establishment join pmln (at that time nawaz was military blue eyed boy). Then musharaf was military man and now he has his own party and is supporting IK. First of all he is too small to remain independent but also cant go to pmln and ppp as both are anti military. Only option he has now is IK.

Regarding he being in favor of nuclear blast. Its the truth. Giving his personality he was in favour of nuclear attack. He was against lal masjid attack and in his local speeches he is very vocal in his anti india stance.

 

[SABRE]

I was following the Pakistani news very closely after the Indian atomic blasts. Reading whatever I could on the internet and listening to Pakistan TV Channel (later became ARY). If I recollect correctly, people in favor of conducting the Atomic tests were Mushahid Hussein Syed (Minister of Information & Broadcasting), Gohar Ayub (Foreign Minister), and Gen Jahangir Karamat (COAS), Dr. AQ Khan and Benazir Bhutto who was then leader of the opposition. Sartaj Aziz, special adviser on Foreign Affairs was against the tests whereas Nawaz Sharif, under pressure from Clinton, was dilly-dallying.

Sh. Rashid was Minister for Railways and may or may not have been among those who were for the tests. His name was not mentioned in the media as he had never been part of the inner circle of Nawaz Sharif.

IMHO, Sh Rashid is being rather presumptuous to imply that he was one of the main persons in the decision making, but then he is a ‘Wily’ politician. How else could he manage to become a Federal Minister under Nawaz Sharif, under Musharraf and now also in the PTI gov’t? I leave it to the readers to decide how credible he is.

IMPO, Sheikh Rashid and Rehman Malik pretend to be more valuable and knowledgable than they actually are. Though Rehman Malik has been part of the security apparatus, unlike Sheikh Rashid. Guhar Ayub, Sartaj Aziz, and Jahangir Karamat are probably the only voices that may have been in on the whole decision-making involved in the nuke tests.

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I have no evidence to support or dispel the widespread perception that the Army went behind NS' back to conduct nuclear tests. However, analysis of civil-military relations in the 1990s suggests that while the relationship was fundamentally fractious the Army nonetheless was relatively more politically disciplined. This is especially true for Gen. Jahangir Karamat. His bowing-out instead of bowing-down or ejecting the civilian government says a lot. The military usually accepted the PM's prerogative in matters of strategic importance, although PM's final decisions may have been highly influenced and in line with the military's wishes. In any case, I doubt the Army would have gone against the established protocols and tested nuke devices without securing an official nod from the PM. While this argument may go in favour of NS it also means that the army would not have taken Kargil action without NS's formal nod (double-edged sword). Remember if the Army wanted to conduct Kargil without political authority's approval it would not have given a presentation on it to the previous BB/PPP government on it. They would have gone for it in the mid-1990s. BB rejected the plan and operation did not take place during her tenure.​

What is, however, true is that NS did appear to delay the tests. But the reasons might not be as nefarious as his opponents point it out to be. During the gap between India and Pakistan nuclear tests, NS and foreign office were exhaustively trying to convince the Americans and Europeans to provide a balancer effect against India. They knew it was going to fail but it was a logical step before commencing with our own tests. But NS may also have been overwhelmed by internal pressures. India conducted tests knowing they would be able to absorb economic sanctions, whereas it was going to be difficult for Pakistan. True to India's perception, just days after sanctions were imposed American firms were signing IT-related deals with India. We need to extensively analyse the events, state structure, and decision-making process before concluding whether NS' behaviour was an act of cowardice or caution. According to some, even PAF did not favour conducting nuke tests as they believed it might seal whatever grim chances they had of acquiring F-16s.

 

[TheNoob]

Yar ye Railway Minister hai.

Itna bolta kyun hai? Lmao

 

[Myth_buster_1]

Yaar I don't meant to be so dismissive of you, but you should read a little bit more about Kargil (from sources other than Musharraf). Heck read Kaiser Tufail's blog to get a picture.

With all due respect to Kaiser Tufail who is a legendary pilot but his view on Kargil is merely his own personal opinion.
Had Pakistan not attempted to resolve Kashmir issue militarily then Pakistanis like you would have still hated Pakistan military for not doing anything to save Kashmir from India.

We (and this includes Musharraf, despite his lies) asked the US to mediate.

Pakistan requested US to stay out of Kargil and since that did not work out and US managed to force Pakistan to retreat back to its territory then they asked US to give them safe passage. And it was India all along that requested US to force Pakistan to retreat. Did you ever think of it in this perspective or does Ayesha Sadiqui or Indian propaganda sound more credible to you?

Even China wasn't backing us diplomatically at this time. Musharraf disputes this and says that his forces were in the ascendancy, he lied, we had just lost Tololing (one of the most strategically important) a few days before Nawaz arrived in Washington at the behest of Musharraf. Things were dire, and our army commanders were incredibly angered by the likes of Musharraf and Mahmud. Even years later some of them quietly grumbled about kargil and what a disaster it was.

Pakistan is perhaps the only country that can question its military. Compare it to US who at time have made biggest blunders prime example Vietnam Iraq wars but no dam politician or high level retired military officials have questioned one bit except for some liberals or NGOs and low level soldiers who were forced to do dirty work.
Kargil a military/political defeat should not be translated as a blunder. Since Pakistan is all out on getting back Kashmir a military option had to be taken since this can not and will NEVER be resolved just by political means.

Of course... Even China refused to support us diplomatically, we were snubbed by them because what was done was mad, and ill-conceived. We crossed the LoC unprovoked (construed as an act of war), captured peaks and then engaged Indians.

Does Indian illegitimate occupation of Kashmir not enough of "provocation" for Pakistan?
And China was not in a position to waist its resources on someone else issue as they were just emerging economy.

At this time, the majority of the armed forces had no clue what was going on, no consultation of the air force for example, in order to gauge their ability to defend if necessary against IAF etc, stupidly planned. Then when we got ourselves in a bad situation, and were unable to respond, what were expecting from the Americans? Was Clinton really going to tell the Indians to stand down and allow us to hold Kargil heights? Musharraf is a liar, and a shameless one. Even his lies have no internal consistency and logic, please don't fall for it, he has convinced the nation through brazen propaganda.

The whole point of Kargil was to limit it to a skirmish between land forces and not a full scale conflict with air force.

If we crossed LoC and captured their territory, how the heck wouldn't we blamed for the Kargil conflict? As for the rest, I don't know why you're going on this tangent. We instigated a conflict between two nuclear armed nations, the shock of which the world was still dealing with, then when things went wrong the perpetrators themselves asked for intervention.

you sound as if you admit Indian occupied kashmir is "indian territory" and not disputed. Show us your true colors.

Note: You also asked why my version of events sounds like the Indian version. That's because compared to the cover story by Musharraf and the propaganda, the Indian story is more accurate. Drawing a parallel to Feb 27, the opposite happen recently compared to then, the Indians lied again and again to cover their failures. We did the same in Kargil. Many members incl. myself have made the contrast between Feb 27 and Kargil. One side started a conflict unprovoked, underestimated the enemy, started limited action but unwittingly allowed all the credibility and diplomatic sympathy to shift to the other side, and allowed the other side to escalate and respond militarily on their own terms. Our NLI fought like lions, and this is attested by Indian's own accounts too, but their poor planners let them down, especially the shameless wretch Musharraf.

Might as well join Ayesha sadique tarek fatha and salman rushdie type clan to take your propaganda to next level actually already are without even joining.

Every nation has self interest and Kargil was in Pakistan's interest but just because the operation failed does not mean it should not have happened. Military options should always be their for resolution of Kashmir.

 

[AZ1]

Ignore this lying idiot Sheikh Rasheed. Already "Failed" minister of Railways.



Reality is Pak Army and Chief Karamat after discussion with Core, rested the case with government to decide on conducting Nuke Bombs tests.

Everyone is failure only corrupt nation sincere and successful in corruption.

 

[Buddhistforlife]

I don't know why this is even news. Yes then PMLN government did not want to conduct the test but were under tremendous pressure to do so. Benazir even threw bangles during a public meeting saying that Nawaz should wear them if he cannot respond to India. After that both of them fought on who was responsible for making Pakistan an atomic power.

The nuclear program of Pakistan was destined to succeed whether Nawaz Sharif likes it nor not. I think Zulfiqur Ali Bhutto already knew that India started a WMD program and so said that Pakistanis will eat grass but will develop nukes. For Pakistan, deterrence against India comes first.

 

[valkyr_96]

The nuclear program of Pakistan was destined to succeed whether Nawaz Sharif likes it nor not. I think Zulfiqur Ali Bhutto already knew that India started a WMD program and so said that Pakistanis will eat grass but will develop nukes. For Pakistan, deterrence against India comes first.

"Destined to succeed" is not the right answer here. We were a nuclear power it had already been validated. The issue here is public declaration (an overt test) and everything that came with it. There was a lot of genuine politics weighing the decision and a lot more of disingenuous politics after that.

 

[volatile]

Kargil was ill planned and many books have been written ,it was gang of 4 which planned Kargil on certain assumptions like Indians will not bring Air force / Bofors etc ,supply chain was not managed and from tactical ,planning and all other aspects it was bad plan ,Even Core Commanders came to know later with AF kept in dark and when they were told AF with mere 36+ F16 started CAP but exhausted all war time spares ,Is this the master mind planning ?

 

[PradoTLC]

Pakistan’s Railways Minister Shiekh Rashid on Saturday claimed that the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was against conducting the nuclear tests in 1998 in response to India’s tests.

“Sharif and almost his whole cabinet (in 1998) were against conducting the nuclear tests in response to India’s. Raja Zafarul Haq, Gauhar Ayub and I were in favour of conducting the nuclear tests,” Rashid told reporters.

Rashid was a member of the cabinet of the Sharif government in 1998.

When asked then on whose order the nuclear tests were carried out on May 28, 1998, if not on Sharif’s, Rashid indirectly referred to the military establishment. “These are national secrets and let it be so.”

When asked why he left for abroad when Pakistan conducted the nuclear tests, the minister replied: “I had to proceed abroad on a special duty.”

Rashid is considered to be close to the establishment and the Opposition calls him its spokesperson.

Dismissing Rashid’s claim, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leader Rana Sanaullah said the whole world knows that Sharif had conducted the nuclear tests in 1998 despite international pressure. “This certified turncoat cannot take away the credit of nuclear tests from Nawaz Sharif, ” he said.

Sharif’s younger brother and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif also said: “After India conducted nuclear tests (in 1998), Nawaz Sharif asked the army leadership to make preparation to give response to it (India) in the same manner.”

“Nawaz Sharif neither accepted a huge economic package nor bowed to international pressure,” he said, adding that there was no doubt in it that former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party leader late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started the nuclear programme.

Sharif was serving prime minister in 1998 for the second time when the nuclear tests were carried out by Pakistan. He was convicted and sentenced to jail on corruption charges in 2018. He is currently in London to receive medical treatment.Pakistan’s Railways Minister Shiekh Rashid on Saturday claimed that the then prime minister Nawaz Sharif was against conducting the nuclear tests in 1998 in response to India’s tests.

“Sharif and almost his whole cabinet (in 1998) were against conducting the nuclear tests in response to India’s. Raja Zafarul Haq, Gauhar Ayub and I were in favour of conducting the nuclear tests,? Rashid told reporters.

Rashid was a member of the cabinet of the Sharif government in 1998.

When asked then on whose order the nuclear tests were carried out on May 28, 1998, if not on Sharif’s, Rashid indirectly referred to the military establishment. “These are national secrets and let it be so.”

When asked why he left for abroad when Pakistan conducted the nuclear tests, the minister replied: “I had to proceed abroad on a special duty.”

Rashid is considered to be close to the establishment and the Opposition calls him its spokesperson.

Dismissing Rashid’s claim, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz senior leader Rana Sanaullah said the whole world knows that Sharif had conducted the nuclear tests in 1998 despite international pressure. “This certified turncoat cannot take away the credit of nuclear tests from Nawaz Sharif,” he said.

Sharif’s younger brother and PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif also said: “After India conducted nuclear tests (in 1998), Nawaz Sharif asked the army leadership to make preparation to give response to it (India) in the same manner.”

“Nawaz Sharif neither accepted a huge economic package nor bowed to international pressure,? he said, adding that there was no doubt in it that former prime minister and Pakistan People’s Party leader late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto started the nuclear programme.

Sharif was serving prime minister in 1998 for the second time when the nuclear tests were carried out by Pakistan. He was convicted and sentenced to jail on corruption charges in 2018. He is currently in London to receive medical treatment.

https://www.samaa.tv/news/pakistan/2020/05/nawaz-sharif-was-against-nuclear-testing-sheikh-rasheed/

True Nawaz only did it under domestic pressure.

noonies lie for the sake of lying

 

[FOOLS_NIGHTMARE]

Guys leave NS aside, it was the house of the MAMMUJI of Shah Mahmood in Multan, where the decision was taken to make Pakistan the atomic power!.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1267746137177546752

 

[El Sidd]

Raj Babbar kay mamo ko salam

 

[Peaceful Civilian]

Nawaz sharif was just power hungry man and he wanted to extend his tenure with the help of western countries. But due to pressure of army, and when nawaz sharif saw army could take unilateral decision, it left no choice for nawaz sharif but to conduct tests.